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Realtor Michael Bell’s Mantra for Sellers: The Most Money in the Fastest Time

By Michael Bell

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 | 7:11 pm

Mike Bell

If, as Warren Buffet says, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing,” then Sotheby’s International Realty Pasadena Realtor Michael B. Bell personifies the precise opposite: the complete confidence of certainty that comes from dealing with someone who knows exactly what he is doing.

Bell, who has sold over $500,000,000 of real estate during his 20-year career, refers to his specialized skill set in a kind of mantra: “I sell homes for the most amount of money with the least amount of headaches in the fastest amount of time.”

“Your best buyers come in the first two weeks,” Bell explains, “so you want to sell within the first two weeks, because you have a better chance of getting the highest price working with the most motivated buyer and the best chance of having a bidding war, opposed to letting it sit.”

The essence of years of selling luxury homes and closing challenging and highly specialized transactions shines through Bell’s pithy maxims. Bell only represents sellers.

“I only represent the sellers and not the buyers on my own transactions, so that the sellers know that they have an advocate from beginning to end,” Bell says.

Most realtors will represent both sides on the same transaction, which is legal, as long as it is disclosed, but it’s a conflict of interest, he says.

Bell’s focused approach has paid off for his clients.

“I moved to Sotheby’s International Realty a few years ago,” Bell says, “and since then I’ve sold more homes than anybody else in my office.”

Sotheby’s made perfect sense to Bell.

“If you are trying to sell your house, you want to get in front of the best audience that has the most amount of money. For me, Sotheby’s has the best audience,” he said.
“When you retain Michael Bell,” he says, “you get me.”

In 2013 and 2014, Bell was ranked in the top 0.1% nationally in The Wall Street Journal. He says 80% of his business is repeat and referral-based and many of his referrals are from local attorneys who describe him as a resourceful, high-level fiduciary specialist.